The 20% Solution

George Bush's main reason for inviting Nelson Mandela to the White House this week is to dramatize Washington's opposition to apartheid and its support for oppressed blacks in South Africa. But the President may have seen another benefit in being hospitable: he wants to demonstrate his longtime regard for issues of concern to American blacks, many of whom know him, like him and may even be willing to vote Republican in this year's congressional elections, to say nothing of 1992.

Though he won only 9% of the black vote in 1988, Bush believes Democrats are foolishly taking their black supporters for...